


Back to Stay

by misura



Category: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-10 03:46:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12903297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: Allan comes back from the dead. Tom has mixed feelings.





	Back to Stay

Special Agents who had single-handedly saved the life of a President of the United States of America did not, Tom reminded himself, hug people. Or cry because against all odds, they were alive.

Thus, with the others crowding right in, he hung back a little, telling himself that it was only sensible, that this might be a trap, a fake, an impostor, and then where would he be if he'd gone and made a fool out of himself in front of everyone?

Pity the rest of the League didn't seem the least inclined to show any such restraint.

"Look who we've got here, then, eh, back from the dead and everything," Skinner said. "Bloke might start to feel invisible, hanging around a bunch of living legends like this."

Mina tossed back her hair. "Assuming Mr Quatermain is, in fact, living."

"My dear girl," Allan said, bowing (if he was a fake, he'd gotten the movements and intonations just right). "I promise you I am every bit as alive as - well, as Mr Sawyer over there. None the worse for having spent some time underground, but none the better, either, more's the pity. I had to have a new pair of glasses made by an optician I'd hardly call civil, let alone polite. Still, he seemed to know his trade, which is all that matters in the end."

"Don't ask for much, do you?" Jekyll said. "Come back from the dead and here you are, complaining whoever did it didn't also fix your eye sight while they were at it. Now there's cheek for you."

"Relatively speaking, it would seem like a small thing to ask for," Allan said and then, nodding at Tom, "My thanks for the gun, incidentally. It's already saved my life once, possibly twice."

"Barely a week out of the grave and already finding trouble again, Mr Q?" Mina tsk'ed.

"Oh, I am far too old and cunning to search for trouble," Allan said. "It simply seems to find me. And being old and cunning, of course, I cannot but wonder if perhaps whoever or, as the case might be, whatever has given me back my life might not have done so for a reason other than misplaced charity."

"Suspicious bloke, ain't you?" Skinner said. "Mind, not that I'm blaming you. These days, fellow can't be careful enough. Always look out for number one, that's my motto."

"I prefer the term 'practical minded'." Allan smiled. "Now, enough about me. What of the League? Regale me."

 

Tom might be able to knock up a solid report, or spin a fair enough yarn when the mood struck him, but he was just as glad to leave it to the others to catch Allan up on the events since their last meeting.

He wasn't afraid, exactly, and by now he was willing to believe that this really was Allan, miraculously back among the living. Didn't mean Tom had any special claim on him.

Didn't mean he was waiting for _Allan_ to make the first move or something.

"Mr Sawyer. Do we have a problem, or are you simply enjoying a good sulk, away from the others for reasons that do not involve me in any way whatsoever?"

Tom shrugged, not turning around. "Those my only two options?"

"I suppose it could be that you are overwhelmed by joy to see me again, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding," Allan said. "Regardless, I should like you to know that for my part, I am ablaze with joy at our reunion. The afterlife just wasn't the same without you."

Tom snorted. "Sure it wasn't."

"Too much?" Allan sighed. "You'll have to forgive me for being woefully out of practice. I fear my courting methods are very last-century. The disadvantages of the elderly."

"Yeah?" Tom wondered how anyone could look at Allan and think he was an old man. "Well, stick around and maybe I'll teach you a thing or two."

Allan chuckled. "I'm sure you will. A trade, perhaps? I never did finish teaching you how to shoot."

Nor would he ever do so, Tom suspected. With a guy like Allan, there was always something more to learn. "You should know, I'm not all that good at that whole - you know." He gestured vaguely. "Courting methods."

"You seemed perfectly charming to me," Allan said. "And still do. This newfound modesty - a little goes a long way, yes? Don't sell yourself short. It's not like it is with shooting, where either you make the shot or you don't. It's a work in progress. A war, if you will, rather than a single battle."

"So who loses?"

Allan grinned. "Why, you do, of course. Always. But then, you also always win, in the end, either because you get what you want or because you get what you need, which would be a valuable lesson in humility, so in the end, it all evens out."

"I don't know, I'm a pretty humble guy already," Tom said. "So I reckon I'll go after getting what I want."

"Make sure that you do. Take it from one who knows: very few good things come to those who lie down alone in the dark, waiting for the world to come to them."

Tom imagined it: waking up, buried in dirt, lungs burning. Clawing his way up, not allowing himself to think he might be digging the wrong way, down, instead of up. He shivered.

"There now, it wasn't so bad as all that. Quite restful, actually. Quiet."

"I'm not really the quiet type," Tom said. "Less you want me to do some sneaking around."

"A professional, indeed." Allan smiled. "So, to trot out another one of my old lines: would you prefer your room, or mine, and which one of us will be responsible for the morning tea?"

"I don't really drink tea," Tom said, because asking if Allan was serious would be embarrassing.

"Being considerate is a highly attractive quality in a young man of impeccable taste. Personally, I enjoy mine with a bit of milk, if you can find it."

"Yeah?" Tom figured it wouldn't be too hard. "So what's in it for me, then?"

"My dear boy," Allan said. "Would you like the tedious, long-winded explanation, or would you prefer for me to simply demonstrate? The latter will take up far less time. Better yet, you may find it educational."

"Educational, huh?" Tom grinned. "It's a deal."


End file.
